This entry was posted on 1/17/2009 10:22 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
This week, as I was checking out the regional newspapers throughout Georgia for some road news to blog about, I found some new news on the long-planned (and long-hoped for)
US 411 Connector in Bartow County.
According to
reports from the Rome News-Tribune, State Senator Preston Smith (R-Rome) has sent a letter to Georgia DOT Commissioner Gena Evans asking that GDOT to have the US 411 Connector added to a list of statewide infrastructure projects that could potentially receive federal economic stimulus money. Said funding is contingent on the 111th Congress passing stimulus legislation as per President-elect Obama's appeal.
Please click here to read Senator Smith's letter to Commissioner Evans.
Meanwhile, in a effort to cut the costs of building the new road, GDOT has reassessed the entire project and decided to trim down the connector. Dubbed "Alternate D-VE" and estimated to cost $180,000,000, said modifications include, but are not limited to, the following...
- Reduce right-of-way from 400 feet to 200 feet.
- Reduce the median width from 68 feet oto 44 feet.
- Construct a folded-diamond interchange at GA 61 instead of a full diamond.Please click here for a map and details.
From looking at the new GDOT map, it seems that the connector from the US 41/US 411 trumpet interchange to I-75 at GA 20 will be limited access, but perhaps not to full Interstate standards. For instance, GDOT's original design showed a brand new "stack" interchange to allow connector traffic to freely flow to and from I-75. Instead, the I-75/GA 20 interchange (Exit 290) will retain diamond ramps to and from the south. While I frankly prefer the "stack" design, I hope that GDOT would consider having 2 ramps coming from I-75 northbound as follows...
- Exit 290A (GA 20 East/Canton)
- Exit 290B (GA 20 West/Rome)As far as the potential re-routing of US 411, I see the following scenarios...
- Reroute US 411 South from GA 61 (Exit 293) onto I-75 South, and joining GA 20 West at Exit 290.
- Reroute US 411 South from GA 61 onto the new connector (GA 20) via the new GA 61 interchange.I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that GDOT would possibly use the latter re-routing scenario.
As for the existing GA 20 from I-75 to US 41/GA 3, I see it as possibly being turned over to the local governments unless GDOT decides to redesignate it as "GA 20 Spur" on "GA 20 Connector".
On the western side of the connector at the current US 41/US 411 "trumpet" interchange, plans were to make it a full diamond interchange, but it looks like it will have 2 types of exit configurations from the connector to US 41/GA 3...
- WESTBOUND (FROM I-75): One exit ramp (US 41/GA 3/Cartersville/Adairsville)
- EASTBOUND (FROM ROME): One southbound exit ramp (US 41/GA 3 South/Cartersville) and one northbound exit ramp (US 41/GA 3 North/Adairsville)In any event, my hopes for this new connector are that it remains a fully limited-access highway and does not turn into the debaucle that US 19/GA 400 from GA 369 to Dahlonega has become. While I understand that cost is a factor and I appreciate any efforts to save taxpayer money, I still hope that the finished product will become that much-needed link to make Atlanta-to-Rome travel much quicker than the current GA 20 routing offers motorists. If it becomes another surface street like the northenmost section of 400 has, then I feel that GDOT will have defeated the purpose of the US 411 Connector and that we, the taxpayers, would eventually have to spend more money to fix it. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, GDOT had the chance to make GA 316 from Lawrenceville to Athens a fully limited-access highway, but regrettably, in the rush to bulid it, they made it little more than a high-speed surface street.
President-elect Obama and the 111th Congress will hopefully work together and provide the necessary funds for this and other infrastructure projects as part of a modern-day "New Deal". All Commissioner Evans and GDOT have to do is put the US 411 Connector on the "wish list". Sometime in the next 10 years, I hope that all this work will result in a brand new high-quality road that will best serve drivers going between Atlanta and Rome, and I, as a "roadgeek", look forward to the day that it opens. In fact, I'd like to be there as one of the first to drive the US 411 Connector just as I was for the GA 400 tollway back in 1993.
Could Obama help the US 411 Connector? Yes, I think so... but only if GDOT and Congress get behind it!
That's it for now. Thanks for reading and please come back again.
